A Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner may be used to acquire images of a part, such as the head, of a human or animal subject at each of two or more different times. For example images may be acquired at each of a series of consultations during medical treatment of the human or animal subject with the images providing for diagnostic feedback as the treatment progresses. Depending on circumstances it may be advantageous to superimpose images acquired at such different times to gain improved diagnostic feedback with regards to what might be subtle changes in pathology. It is known for radiologists and like experienced personnel to superimpose images manually. Superimposition might be achieved by the radiologist visually identifying one or more particular physical objects, such as an organ or bone, which is common to the different images, and bringing the identified physical objects in the different images into registration with each other. More recently computer implemented approaches to image registration have been devised. For example WO 2009/040514 describes an approach for bringing two or more images into registration or conformity with each other by way of a data compression technique which provides for fast and accurate processing but without there being an undue computational burden.
The present inventor has become appreciative of shortcomings in known approaches to bringing images into registration or conformity with each other. The present invention has therefore been devised in the light of this appreciation.
It is therefore an object for the present invention to provide a process of bringing a first data set and a second data set into registration or conformity with each other by electronic methods, each of the first and second data sets being a representation, e.g. an image, of a particular physical object, such as a part of a human or animal body.
It is a further object for the present invention to provide electrical apparatus operative to bring a first data set and a second data set into registration or conformity with each other, each of the first and second data sets being a representation, e.g. an image, of a particular physical object, such as a part of a human or animal body.